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Thursday, July 13, 2017

Pixar shorts come to life! (1984-2017)

From the team who produced “Toy Story,” “Monsters’ Inc.,” “Finding Nemo,” and “Cars.” Comes a string of short films that innovates the great life of animation, motion pictures, and the usage of computer technology systems that will bring the world into such great heights of storytelling and depth of the characters. Here’s the list of shorts from 1984 to now.

· The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. (1984): Lucasfilm’s created short about a character named Andre receives a pesky visitor. (1:55)

· Luxo Jr. (1986): First CGI short nominated for Oscar and the first Pixar short about an adult lamp, watching over a child lamp playing with a ball, which accidentally deflates. This is one of my favorite shorts to watch. This was shown in front of “Toy Story 2.” (2:10)
· Red’s Dream (1987): A short about a unicycle that dreams about being a better place, which was the circus. (4:15)

· Tin Toy (1988): Winner for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar about a one-man band toy escaping from toy-torturing baby. (5:10)

· Knick Knack (1989): This short tells about an unlucky snow globe snowman who tried many attempts to escape from his snow globe. This was shown in front of “Finding Nemo.” (3:35)
· Geri’s Game (1997): Oscar-winning short about a man playing chess against his greatest opponent: himself. This was shown in front of “A Bug’s Life.” (4:50)

· For the Birds (2000): Oscar-winning short about the flock of small birds, picking on the wrong, tall victim. This was shown in front of “Monsters’ Inc.” (3:25)

· Mike’s New Car (2002): A short about Mike and Sulley who are trying out the new car with disastrous results. (3:50)
· Boundin (2003): A short about a sheep who finds life difficult after being sheared. This was shown in front of “The Incredibles.” (4:40)
· Jack-Jack Attack (2005): This short, during the events of The Incredibles, about a baby who has looked after the babysitter with secretive super powers. (4:45)
· One Man Band (2005): A short where the two street musicians fighting over the child’s money. This was shown in front of “Cars.” (4:30)

· Mater and the Ghostlight (2006): A Cars short about Mater believes that the mysterious “Ghostlight” is after him after hearing that story. (7:10)

· Lifted (2006): A short film about a novice alien trying to capture a human through the series of toggle switches. This was shown in front of Ratatouille.” (5:00)

· Your Friend the Rat (2007): After Ratatouille, A short about Remy talking about the history of rats. (11:15)
· Presto (2008): A short about magician trying to perform a show with his carrot-hungry rabbit. This was shown in front of “WALL-E.”(5:15)
· BURN-E (2008): During the events of WALL-E, a short about a robot trying replace a lamp spire after it got destroyed. (7:35)

· Cars Toons: Mater’s Tall Tales (2008-12): Eleven short films about Mater talked about his past with his previous occupations, and with McQueen’s sudden participation.

· Partly Cloudy (2009): a short about a stork delivering a baby from baby-making cloud. This was shown in front of “Up.” (5:45)

· Dug’s Special Mission (2009): After Up, a short about Dug, from Up, receiving a mission from his fellow dogs. (4:40)

· George & AJ (2009): A 2D short based on Pixar’s Up, about what happen to the two nurses after Carl took off with thousands of balloons. (4:00)
· Day & Night (2010): these two characters who have opposite events happing: one daytime activities and one nighttime activities. This was shown in front of “Toy Story 3.” (6:00)

· Hawaiian Vacation (2011): One of three Toy Story shorts about a couple taking a vacation in Hawaii but in the little girl’s house. This was shown in front of “Cars 2.” (5:55)

· Small Fry (2011): One of three Toy Story shorts about Buzz, replaced by mini-Buzz, trying to escape the fast-food joint. This was shown in front of “The Muppets.” (7:05)

· La Luna (2011): a short about three different-style men who are set to clean the moon, filled with stars. This was shown in front of “Brave.” (7:00)

· The Legend of Mordu (2012): After Brave, a story about how an evil prince was turned into a bear. (6:55)

· Partysaurus Rex (2012): One of three Toy Story short films about Rex, left-behind in the bathroom, gets into a wild, funny bath party with the bath toys. This was shown in front of the 3D re-release of “Finding Nemo.” (6:30)

· The Blue Umbrella (2013): A romantic short about blue umbrella trying to be close to the female, red umbrella. This was shown in front of “Monsters University.” (6:45)

· Party Central (2013): After Monsters University, A short about Mike and Sulley throwing a party to his fraternity brothers, while disturbing the married couple’s sleep. This shown in front of “Muppets Most Wanted.” (5:40)

· Lava (2014): A musical short about a volcano singing a song in order to find love. This was shown in front of “Inside Out.” (7:10)

· The Radiator Springs 500 ½ (2014): a short about Lighting McQueen challenges to a race against the gang racers. (6:00)

· Riley’s First Date (2015): After Inside Out, a short about Riley’s parents and emotions are suspecting that a boy is going a date with Riley. (4:40)

· Sanjay’s Super Team (2015): A short about the little boy’s experience between religion and superheroes. This was shown in front of “The Good Dinosaur.” (7:05)

· Piper (2016): A cute, short film about a baby bird looks deep in to the water to overcome his fear of water. This was shown in front of “Finding Dory.” (6:05)

· Lou (2017): this latest short about a mysterious lost-and-found monster that tries to stop the bully from destroying and stealing the children’s toys. This was shown in front of “Cars 3.” (6 minutes)

All Pixar short films are outstanding for a good opening act before the main feature film begins. The storylines for each shorts gives a good twist, comedy, drama, romance, and a turning point for the events. All these shorts are part of the animation tradition. Pixar kept a good work ethic between short films and features for their tradition to them and to Disney. I do like the theatrical shorts that have a good taste of original ideas as Pixar put some good unique way to showcase to the audiences. Overall, all of the Pixar shorts performed in a cinematic style like the Pixar feature films.

I’ll have you know that these short films would never seem to disappoint you when watching these in front of a Pixar film or all together on Blu-ray/DVD. Although there are a few shorts, such as Party Central, that are hard to find but you’ll have to look harder for a good version if you want to see it. However, the only thing you might concern about is the time length for all shorts so I suggest you need to check the time lengths before watching this is but you can watch it separately. You don’t have to watch it all together unless you wanted to get more fun than ever.
Grade: A+
(Review by Henry Pham)

Moderators

Reesa is owner/moderator/reviewer of the Dallas Movie Screenings Yahoo group and a member of the North Texas Film Critics Association. Cheryl and Daina co-moderators of the Dallas Movie Screenings Yahoo Group. Contributing writers are Chase Lee, Cheryl Wurtz, Wyatt Head, Erin Nicole Parisi, Joel Copling and Dr. Dwanna Swann-Ary..